Optimize transactional emails

1. Contact your email marketing platform provider and ask for a dedicated IP address for transactional email use.

Most platforms will provide this service and will set it up for you. Your transactional emails contain important information about a user’s purchase. Therefore you need to ensure these emails get delivered. If you send your transactional receipts through the same IP address as your marketing emails, your transactional emails may end up in spam if your marketing emails develop deliverability or spam issues. This is why you should have a separate IP address setup specific and only for your transactional emails Getting a dedicated IP address from your email provider is simple and straight-forward as they will handle the technical aspect.

2. When creating your template for your transactional emails include the basic information.

For example: Thank them for their purchase or action. Include their name and relevant details. The purchase amount. Tracking details, if applicable. A customer service contact point. All this information will be inserted using your platforms dynamic tags to pull through the user specific information. Refer to your platforms dynamic tag or transactional email guide for full details, as the process can vary from platform to platform. Do not add too many images or graphics to the email. Ideally, you should send a plain-text email to ensure deliverability.

3. Personalize your email by including the user's first name with a greeting.

For example, Hi [FIRSTNAME]

4. Create a subject line that that demonstrates the importance of the email.

Use personalization if suitable Examples of transactional email subject lines: [FIRSTNAME] Your order details… [FIRSTNAME] Important information regarding your recent purchase. [FIRSTNAME] Please save this email for your records.

5. Keep the content of the email focused on the transaction.

Insert a headline at the top of your email that lets the user know the email contains important information. For example, YOUR RECENT ORDER DETAILS or IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON YOUR RECENT PURCHASE. You could include a section at the end of your email, before the footer, that directs users to your bestsellers or complimentary products, but do not make this the main focus of your transactional email. Keep images to a minimum. It is a good idea to provide content or a link to content, that helps them get the most out of the purchase. For example, if a user has purchased art supplies from you, you may link them to a blog post or a video that demonstrates how to use the supplies effectively.

6. Add a clear and compelling call to action if there is another action you'd like your user to take.

For example, if there is a tutorial, guide, or piece of content that compliments your product, you may insert a call to action like Click here to find out how to get more out of ABC. It is wise to at a minimum include a call to action like, Click here to shop our bestsellers, or including a call to action that links to complimentary products or services.

7. Test your transactional email across multiple inboxes and devices.

You can do this manually by setting up a series of inboxes with the major providers, or you can use a service like Litmus which will do this automatically for you.